N.H.L. PLAYOFFS

N.H.L. PLAYOFFS;Penguins Use Finesse To Even Their Series

By CHARLIE NOBLES

Published: May 27, 1996

MIAMI, May 26—
When it was over, Jaromir Jagr waved off reporters. "Too much pain," the Pittsburgh Penguins' right wing said, pointing to his mouth. His fellow star, Mario Lemieux, had gobs of sweat rolling off his face as he sat exhausted at his locker, talking in a whisper.

In danger of falling within a game of elimination in the Eastern Conference finals, the Penguins, known as a finesse team, did more than their share of bumping today, with Lemieux and Jagr leading the way.

"We played like Florida does," left wing Bryan Smolinski said after Pittsburgh defeated the Florida Panthers, 2-1, before 14,703 at Miami Arena to tie the four-of-seven-game series at 2-2.

The teams next play Tuesday night in Pittsburgh.

Lemieux's brilliance surfaced when the Penguins needed it most, in the game's fading minutes. In a 4-on-4 situation, having played every second shift of the third period, Lemieux zig-zagged 75 feet up the ice with the puck, finally shooting from 8 feet. Panther goalie John Vanbiesbrouck blocked it, but Smolinski swooped in for the winning follow-up, 3 minutes 31 seconds from the finish.

Smolinski had just left the bench.

"Mario's our leader and he's going to come up with those type of plays," said defenseman J. J. Daigneault, unaware that this was the first time in nine playoff games that Florida had been unable to hold a lead after two periods.

Pittsburgh goalie Tom Barrasso stopped 32 shots. "When he is on, he is one of the best in the league," Lemieux said.

In the wake of an embarrassing 5-2 loss Friday night, the Penguins left a team meeting realizing their normal finesse style wasn't going to get it done against Florida.

"We found ourselves in a desperate situation," Lemieux said. "Maybe we should be desperate more often."

Even down after two periods, Coach Ed Johnston liked what he saw before the final stanza.

"Our room was upbeat and I had a very good feeling," he said.

Pittsburgh came tantalizingly close to scoring the go-ahead goal with 9:42 left in the game. Right wing Tomas Sandstrom banged a shot off Vanbiesbrouck's leg, and the puck, which has to be completely inside the net's red line to count as a score, was maybe a centimeter away from achieving that.

The most noteworthy development of a scoreless first period was the beating endured by Jagr, who said that he had a "hole" in his tongue. First the right wing caught Stu Barnes's stick in his face on the Panther center's follow-through swing at a pass. Then, less than two minutes later, with 9:02 left in the period, he never saw the hit as Mike Hough leveled him on a Pittsburgh power play.

Groggy, Jagr didn't return until less than a minute remained in the period. He promptly showed his explosiveness with a near-breakaway thwarted only by defenseman Robert Svehla's lunging shoulder nudge.

Barrasso received a rare two-minute penalty for a goalie when he chopped Florida right wing Scott Mellanby across the thigh with his stick.

Holding Pittsburgh without a shot for nearly 14 minutes of the second period, the Panthers finally took the lead 7:10 into the period.

Defenseman Terry Carkner's waist-high 35-foot shot was niftily redirected by the left wing Dave Lowry near the crease and bounded quirkily between Barrasso's legs as he scrambled to react.

The Penguins had a great scoring chance six minutes into the second period, when Jagr hit the net's right post on a breakaway. The opportunity was created by his steal of the puck from center Martin Straka.

And shortly thereafter, Lemieux was bearing in on another breakaway when Svehla dove fully extended and flicked the puck away.

Most of the rest of the period belonged to Florida, which fashioned a 16-5 shot advantage. Still, Barrasso kept Pittsburgh in the game with deft stops of serious charges by Straka and then Barnes.

The Penguins knotted the game 8:57 into the final period on left wing Brad Lauer's 10-foot shot that sailed over Vanbiesbrouck's right shoulder.

And then came Lemieux's heroics.

"I thought we deserved a better outcome after the way we played," Panthers Coach Doug MacLean said. "But we'll bounce back. It's not the end of the world."

Photo: The Pittsburgh Penguins' bench erupting in celebration afterBryan Smolinski scored against Florida late in the game to put the Penguins ahead. (Associated Press)